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Chapter 2

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter shows the research design used in the

study including the research locale, sample and sampling

procedure, description of the respondents, and data

gathering techniques and instruments to collect the

necessary data for determining whether taking and posting

selfies on social media have a relationship with self-

esteem.

Research Design

The researchers employed the descriptive method in

nature of correlational research with two variables: selfie

and self-esteem in this study. Descriptive method aims to

discover snapshot of current thoughts, feelings or

behaviors of individuals while correlational study deals

with discovering relationships among variables and allow

the prediction of future events from present knowledge (C.

Stangor, 2012).

In a paper from the Journal of Business and Economic

Research, Williams (2007) described the descriptive

research approach as a basic research method that examines

the situation, as it exists in its current state.

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Descriptive research involves identification of attributes

of a particular phenomenon based on an observational basis,

or the exploration of correlation between two or more

phenomena.

Moreover, Kowalczyk (2015) added that descriptive

research is a study designed to depict the participants in

an accurate way. More simply put, descriptive research is

all about describing people who take part in the study.

The study also utilized the correlational research

method. According to Dr. Myrna Matira (2016) correlational

research investigates a range of factors, including the

nature of relationship between two or more variables and

the theoretical model that might be developed and tested to

explain these resulting correlations.

The said methods were used by the researchers to

thoroughly describe the selfie phenomena and discover the

possible existence of an association between selfies and

self – esteem.

Research Locale

This research study was conducted in the senior

high school department of a community college named General

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de Jesus College located at the municipality of San Isidro,

Nueva Ecija.

General de Jesus College, formerly known as General de

Jesus Academy is a private non-sectarian educational

institution that first opened in June 1946 in a rented

building as an academy with seven teachers including the

principal and 255 students from first year to fourth year

high school. It was open to educate the young people in San

Isidro and mold them to be better people. The school was

named in honor of General Simeon de Jesus who was one of

the most distinguished graduates of the Philippine

Constabulary Academy, now called Philippine Military

Academy and a local hero who was executed by the Japanese

in Fort Santiago.

At present, the school is located at Vallarta Street,

Poblacion, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. It offers Pre-

Elementary Education, Kindergarten, Grade school (Grades 1

to 6), Junior High School and College. The school also

offers Senior High School wherein General de Jesus College

received the Government Permit for Senior High School

Program No. 062 s. 2015 last May 29, 2015 from the

Department of Education – Region III. The school’s senior

high school department offers three specialized academic

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strands which includes Accountancy and Business Management

(ABM); Humanities and Social Sciences and Education

(HUMSS); and Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics (STEM). Two technical-vocational strands are

also offered, namely Home Economics (Bread and Pastry

Production and Food Beverage Services) and Information and

Communication Technology.

The educational institution is now on its 70 th year of

existence and since the foundation of General de Jesus

College, the school continues to provide high quality

education to the youth. In fact, the school’s high school

department was chosen as the “Most Effective Private High

School” in the Division of Nueva Ecija. In support to that,

according to the March 2014 issue of The Plume, the

official school paper of the high school department, to

recognize General de Jesus College’s excellency in its high

school department, the Association of Christian Schools,

College and Universities Accrediting Agency (ACSCU-AAI)

upgraded the accreditation status of the High School

Department from Level II to Level III valid until 2017.

Level III is the highest accreditation level for basic

education units.
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All of the school’s departments are accredited by the

(ACSCU-AAI). These are in accordance to the last

accreditation in 2012.

The school's philosophy is:

The development of a morally upright, civic-minded,

and useful citizenry is the responsibility of any

educational institution.

The school’s vision is:

General De Jesus College as a leading learning

institution where every learner is transformed into a God-

loving and highly productive citizen responsive to the

local, national and global needs.

The school’s mission is:

General De Jesus College is committed to produce

graduates who are instilled with nationalistic, moral and

spiritual values and who are equipped with life and career

competencies.
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Figure 2. Map of San Isidro

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Sample and Sampling Procedure

The researchers selected (221) Grade 12 students that

comply with the limitations of the study. They are from

the strands of Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics (STEM), Humanities, Social Sciences and

Education (HUMSS), and Accountancy and Business Management

(ABM) who are enrolled in General de Jesus College for the

school year of 2017-2018.

The study used the random sampling method to assemble

the sample population that is appropriate for the situation

which is student who takes and posts selfies on social

media. It is necessary to use the random sampling method

specifically the use of Slovin's formula in order to gather

the sample population needed for reliable findings.

As stated by Frerichs (2008), random sampling is the

process of selecting subjects in the population that are

sampled by a random process, using either a random number

generator or a random number table, so that each person

remaining in the population has the same probability of

being selected for the sample.

According to Ellen (2017), when it is not possible to

study an entire population, a smaller sample is taken using

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a random sampling technique. Slovin's formula allows a

researcher to sample the population with a desired degree

of accuracy. It gives the researcher an idea of how large

his sample size needs to be to ensure a reasonable accuracy

of results.

Table 1

Distribution of the Respondents

TOTAL SAMPLE
STRAND AND SECTION
FREQUENCY FREQUENCY
Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM)
Einstein 38 17
Newton 38 17
Galileo 36 16
Edison 27 12
Maxwell 10 5
Dalton 37 17
Accountancy and Business Management
(ABM)
Pacioli 36 16
Manucci 42 19
Porter 39 18
Mayo 38 17
Drucker 37 17
Taylor 38 17
Humanities, Social Sciences and
Education (HUMSS)
Shakespeare 28 13
Beethoven 43 20
TOTAL 487 221
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Description of the Respondents

Two hundred twenty-one (221) Grade 12 students from

the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

(STEM), Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (HUMSS),

and Accountancy and Business Management (ABM) strands of

General de Jesus College enrolled during the school year of

2017-2018 participated in this study. All the respondents

involved were students who take selfies and posts them on

social media.

Data Gathering Techniques

After the research adviser approved the

questionnaires, the researchers validated the questions by

making some students who were not included as respondents

answer the questionnaires.

1. Data Gathering Instruments

The researchers used the following instruments in

terms of gathering information that is needed:

questionnaires and structured interview.

1.1. Questionnaire

As stated in his study, Abawi (2013) defined

questionnaire as a data collection instrument with a

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series of precise or planned questions that can create

information that is needed in the conducted study. He

also stated that it is used in collecting and gathering

data or information from the respondents to collect

complete and accurate logical information to meet the

goal or objective of the research study. The researchers

used questionnaire as the main instrument to gather clear

and accurate information from a large number of

respondents that is needed in their research study.

The questions included in the questionnaire were

formulated by the researchers. The first part of the

questionnaire is the profile of the respondents including

their name, sex and age. Also, the frequency or the

number of times the respondents post their selfie/s in a

day, week or even a month and in what social media site

they post their selfies were also included in this part.

The second part contained the reasons why respondents

take selfies where it was described in terms of scaling

or rating 1-5 where 5 is served as strongly agree, 4 is

agree, 3 is neutral, 2 is disagree and 1 as strongly

disagree. This section broadened the reasons why people

usually take and post selfies in terms of self-

expression, leisure time and recording memorable moments.

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And the last part contained the effects of taking

selfies in respondent’s self-esteem where it was also

described by scaling or rating 1-5, where 5 is served as

strongly agree, 4 is agree, 3 is neutral, 2 is disagree

and 1 is described as strongly disagree. This section

explored the effects of selfies by distributing the

effects in terms of confidence, awareness of self –

strengths and weaknesses and outlook in life. The

questionnaire is validated by letting students who are

not included in the scope of the study to answer the said

questionnaire to ensure its efficiency in gathering the

essential data.

1.2. Structured Interview

According to McLeod (2014), structured interview is

a standardized interview process where all questions have

been prepared in advance. It is the one of the most

common instrument in collecting and gathering information

from the respondents by having an in-depth conversation

and the choice of answers to the questions is fixed or

closed.

The researchers used this instrument to collect and

gather more information needed in the conducted study.

They used this instrument to have an in-depth

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conversation with the selected respondent to obtain more

information that can verify the study that is being

conducted. The respondents’ answers in the interview will

serve as basis to further explain the findings in the

presentation, analysis and interpretation of data.

2. Administration of Data Gathering Instruments

The researchers gave an authorization letter to the

principal, research adviser and also to the respondents

with guided description about the main purpose of the

research study for their consent about the interview and

survey that the researchers were going to use.

Also, the researchers conducted a room-to-room survey

on all the Grade 12 students of General de Jesus College to

determine the total number of students who take and post

selfies online. After gathering the total population of

Grade 12 students who take and post selfies, the

researchers utilized the Slovin’s formula to gather the

sample population. Then, the researchers gave

questionnaires to a sample population of 221 respondents.

They gave each senior high school students survey

questionnaires that are conducted with guided description

about the purpose of the study. The questionnaires provided

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by the researchers have all the questions that they were

finding and seeking answers for. Moreover, they conducted

an interview in selected students who were extremely

exposed in posting and taking selfies to further extract

more reliable information to support the study. They also

reviewed the data multiple times and interpreted and

evaluated the results whether there is a relationship

between taking and posting selfies and self-esteem.

The researchers also visited the library to acquire

more information and gather more related literature that

can help the researchers on the study being conducted.

Statistical Treatment

The data that was gathered from questionnaires were

treated in the following way:

The researchers utilized the Slovin's formula in order

to obtain the sample size from the total population.

According to Almeda et al. (2010), as cited by Punzalan &

Tejada (2012), a number of research studies use the so-

called Slovin’s (or sometimes Sloven’s) formula for

obtaining the sample size. Denoting by n the sample size,

Slovin’s formula is given by n = N / (1 + Ne^2) where N is

the population size and e is the margin of error.

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Frequency count and Percentage were used to gather

data regard to the profile variables of the Senior High

School students.

Percentage was also used to get the average of Senior

High School student’s profile variables such as sex, age,

frequency of taking and posting selfies, and social

networking site used in posting selfies that might affect

their perception towards the reasons for taking and posting

selfies and the effects of taking and posting selfies on

self-esteem.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦
Percentage = 𝑥 100
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠

The scale value and verbal description of the response

about the perception of Senior High School students of

General de Jesus College towards the reasons for taking and

posting selfies and the effects of taking and posting

selfies on self-esteem are expressed on the following

table:
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Table 2

Rating Scale of SHS Students' Perception Towards the Reasons

for Taking and Posting Selfies and The Effects of Taking
and Posting Selfies on Self-Esteem

VERBAL
SCALE MEAN RANGE VERBAL DESCRIPTION
DESCRIPTION
The respondents totally
agree that the statement
given is a reason for taking
5 4.20-5.00 Strongly Agree and posting selfies and an
effect of taking and posting
selfies on self-esteem.

The respondents agree that

the statement given is a
reason for taking and
3.40-4.19
4 Agree posting selfies and an
effect of taking and posting
selfies on self-esteem.
The respondents neither
agree nor disagree that the
given statement is a reason
3 2.60-3.39 Neutral for taking and posting
selfies and an effect of
taking and posting selfies
on self-esteem.
The respondents disagree
that the given statement is
1.80-2.59 a reason for taking and
2 Disagree
posting selfies and an
effect of taking and posting
selfies on self-esteem.
The respondents strongly
disagree that the given
statement is a reason for
1.79 and Strongly
1 taking and posting selfies
below Disagree
and an effect of taking and
posting selfies on self-
esteem.